An early case of de novo membranous nephropathy in a renal transplant patient.

SECOND to chronic allograft dysfunction, membranous nephropathy (MN) is the most frequent cause of nephrotic syndrome in renal transplantation. This pathology can be caused by recurrence of the primary renal disease, the development of de novo glomerulopathy, or by a transplanted glomerular disease (present but unrecognized in the donor). De novo MN was first described more than 25 years ago 3 and is the most common de novo disease after engraftment. It has an incidence of 2 to 9% in most series, with the highest rates being reported by centres who perform routine graft biopsies, De novo disease tends to present later than the recurrent forms, and typically occurs 2 years post transplantation, although cases have been described at 4 months.